1. Field of the Invention
The present invention concerns a composite food product which is a bonded product of "hanpen" (floated-type kamaboko)-like foamed food materials having a high cell or foam content and "kamaboko" (boiled fish paste)-like foamed food materials having a cell content less than that of the hanpen-like food materials. The composite food products of the present invention can be used for different cooking purposes such as frying, boiling, roasting or the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
Fish jelly products typical examples of which include kamaboko, hanpen or other foamed food products are generally produced from raw fishes such as codfish (theragre chalc cogramma), croaker, shark, bastard halibut or yellow fish (akta mackerels), or minced meat thereof. The minced or unminced fish meat is salted with 2 to 4% of a common salt, ground and mixed with any additives such as seasonings, starch or the like. After gelling by extracting salt-melting-protein, the mixture is molded to any desired shape, left to stand while maintaining its molded shape and finally heated. Particularly, the kamaboko is produced under the controlled conditions to avoid an excessive introduction of foams into the fish meat as a starting material. On the contrary, the hanpen is produced in such a manner that a sufficient amount of foams are contained in the resulting one. It is apparent from this fact that the kamaboko has a relatively hard texture, while the hanpen has a relatively soft texture. It is the case that the texture of the kamaboko, hanpen or other foamed fish jelly products are controlled with the change of their cell or foam content to give a variety of taste thereto.
Such fish jelly products are sometimes eaten without further processing. Namely, they are eaten after dressing with a "shoyu" (soy sauce) and grated "wasabi" (eutrema wasabi maxim). Further, they are sometimes fried in an edible oil, used as an ingredient in the cooking of "oden" (Japanese hotch potch) or roasted on an oiled frying pan. The fish jelly products cooked thus have a varied taste in addition to an improved taste.
However, the hanpen suffers from several drawbacks. For example, the hanpen tends to result in a slimy feeling in eating due to its surface wetted with water, because it is previously heated in a boiled water to cause a gelation of the minced fish meat. A sliminess of the hanpen is more increased when the hanpen is dipped and heated in a stock, since the porous surface of hanpen can be easily impregnated with the stock. As a result, an appropriate elasticity which is an essential feature of the hanpen is notably lost.
Further, the hanpen, when it is roasted on an oiled frying pan, can frequently receive the coated oil and therefore result in an oily surface which is not good to eating.
Furthermore, the food products having a high cell content such as the hanpen are usually expanded upon cooking with heat. As a result, an original net or open-cell structure of the products is destroyed, thereby causing an escape of air from the products. Since the degassed products reduce their volume, they are finally deformed and lose their soft and elastic texture. As a typical example, when the hanpen is fried after coating with a wheat flour, the fried hanpen is deformed with an action of heat and therefore gaps are formed between the hanpen and its coating.
Similarly, the kamaboko has some undesirable tendencies. After cooking or roasting, the kamaboko is hardened with remarkable shrinkage. This means a dull taste of the kamaboko.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide an improved food product by bonding hanpen-like formed food materials and kamaboko-like less formed food materials which, after cooking or roasting, has a soft and elastic texture and a crisp feeling in eating.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an improved food product which, when cooked, does not result in its deformation which has been frequently experienced in the cooking of the foamy food products such as the hanpen, for example.